Godric
History In the Sookie Stackhouse book series, Godric is first mentioned in a case involving the disappearance of the vampire serf of the king Stan Davis. Sookie uses her telepathic ability on one of Stan's employees to glean that the vampire was lured to a bathroom. Shortly after, it is discovered that Godric had entrapped and kidnapped the vampire, bringing him along to the Fellowship of the Sun to force him to take part in a public suicide. When Sookie enters the Fellowship, she is captured and bound. Her guard attempts to rape her, and Sookie is rescued by Godric from her imprisonment by Fellowship of the Sun members. Sookie escapes, dismantling the Fellowship in the process with help of some friendly vampires, and the missing vampire is freed. Godric stays behind at the church, and expresses his will to commit suicide due to the guilt he holds for spending many years of his vampiric life molesting and killing children. She sheds a few tears for his pain, though she cannot feel much remorse for his choice due to the horror of his past actions. His resolve is further solidified by the Fellowship's approval of his choice, and as a result, they offer to "host" his public suicide on their grounds. After Sookie's is freed from the Church's basement, she leaves the grounds, but returns the next day to find Godric alone in the parking lot. She sheds a few tears for his pain, and Godric in turn expresses his gratitude, stating that having one person to cry at his expense at the moment of his death was more than he expected. He then steps into the sun, killing himself, and Sookie leaves. Canon (what little of it there is) Not a lot is known about Godric's history in canon. When he first appears, it's in a flashback of Eric's memory of being turned into a vampire. While Eric is dying on his funeral pyre, Godric appears out of nowhere and kills his comrades-in-arms in a flash before offering Eric eternal life. He looks every bit a northern tribal savage, from his fairly extensive tattooing, to his buckskin pants, to the Thor's hammer he wears around his neck. The next time we see Godric is in the basement of the Fellowship of the Sun, snapping the neck of a church member (Gabe) who was attempting to rape Sookie. What he did in the thousand years between that is unknown, save that official sources say he spent the first 900 years with Eric before the two went their separate ways. By the time he reappears in the church, he's very changed in appearance and demeanor. He offered himself to the church, knowing they were going to have him 'meet the sun,' burning Godric alive. He'd hoped that somehow, by going with them and ending his life as their sacrifice, it would help fix the relationship between vampires and humans. The plan failed, especially since everyone was under the impression that the church had somehow managed to capture Godric against his wishes and they all came to rescue him. Godric and Eric were reunited when Eric came for him, but Godric ordered Eric to take Sookie and run without him, not telling Eric he still intended to remain as the church's sacrifice. It wasn't until Godric's entire nest showed up to rescue him and exact revenge on the church members that Godric reappeared and put a swift stop to it. After returning home to his nest in Dallas, Godric accepted his well-wishers but refused to drink when Eric offered to arrange a donor. It became worryingly apparent to Eric throughout that episode and the next that Godric was distant and melancholy. Ultimately, Godric was fired from his job as Sheriff of area nine due to his mishandling of the Fellowship situation and he accepted the verdict without a fight. In the end, it became clear that Godric had purposely intended to end his life, and still planned to do so. Eric tried to talk him out of it, begged and threatened and cried, but Godric was resolute in his decision. He told Eric that vampires didn't belong, that they 'were wrong,' but when Eric said he would die with Godric, Godric commanded him not to. He asked Sookie about God just before the sun rose, wanting to know how he'd be punished if she was right and there was a God. She assured him that God doesn't punish, and Godric reassured her that he was 'full of joy,' not frightened. He also asked if she would take care of Eric before walking away from her into the sunrise, burning to nothing in seconds. Headcanon (AKA: I Spend Way Too Much Time on This Shit) Origins We can theorize that in life, Godric was probably a member of a northern tribe, somewhere in Scandinavia. After much chatting with Takh, I have settled on either the Sitones or Teutons as his tribe of origin, due to their general location and their love of travel and/or poking at Romans. Godric's religion was the predecessor of Norse Mythology, steeped more in the individual lore of each settlement than in an overall, organized religion crossing the entire region. Their gods were likely similar, if less well-developed than the Norse ones, and their rituals were ones of sex and sacrifice, fertility and the hunting and eating of meat. Godric's tattoos seem to indicate that he was of a high rank in his tribe, as they represent an overall theme of death, rebirth, and change. It's possible he was some kind of shaman in training. Tattoos *'Neck' : The necklace tattoo is traditionally a symbol of protection in many Anglo-Saxon cultures. It's generally given to those who are higher-ranking in the given society, including chiefs, hunters, and warriors. *'Right Arm' : The tattoo on Godric's right arm is written in Elder Futhark, the oldest runic language. We never get a full shot of the tattoo, so it's impossible to translate it, but such tattoos were fairly common and were generally some kind of phrase. Unfortunately, people had a bad habit of shortening phrases, like textspeak. For all we know, it's the Elder Futhark equivalent of 'omg u guys stfu'. Only more important and such. *'Left Arm' : More than likely, a traditional symbol for water. *'Spine' : The spinal tattoo appears to be a sea serpent. Sea Serpents were popular in later Norse culture, especially Jormundgand, the Midgard Serpent, Midgårdsormen, or World Serpent. According to the Prose Edda, Odin took Loki's three children, Fenrisúlfr, Hel and Jörmungandr. He tossed Jörmungandr into the great ocean that encircles Midgard. The serpent grew so big that he was able to surround the Earth and grasp his own tail. When he lets go the world will end. As a result he earned the alternate name of the Midgard Serpent or World Serpent. Sea serpents in general represented death and rebirth. *'Brand' : The brand on Godric's shoulder is of unknown origins that may suggest he was a slave sometime before he was turned, or so is the popular fandom theory, and my theory. However, while branding as punishment for misfit slaves was common in Rome around the time of Godric's birth, the brands usually marked the face, not the shoulder. Not only is Godric's brand easily hidden, the markings bear no resemblance to typical punishment brands. It's still possible it's a mark of ownership by a Roman house, not necessarily a mark of punishment. My headcanon is that Godric was captured, probably while on a raid or hunting party, when he was 14 or 15 years old, and enslaved. His escape attempts were probably near-constant up until the point he finally succeeded and ran into a vampire, who turned him at the age of 15 or 16. The fact that he bore tattoos representing death and rebirth were merely a very appropriate coincidence, and in my headcanon, his maker teased him about it. Now watch season three come along and contradict all of this. Strengths / Weaknesses Being a very old vampire means that Godric is pretty much ridiculously powerful. He has immense strength (think Superman), and his speed is enhanced to the point where it's difficult if not impossible to track him with a normal, human pair of eyes. His senses are heightened -- he can see in the dark as if it were day, hear a heartbeat a mile away, and smell a scent hours old -- and his stamina and endurance are off the charts. He can heal from minor injuries in seconds, major injuries in minutes. If he loses a limb, it will grow back over a period of a month or two. Godric can glamour the average human, which is essentially a form of hypnosis. He can bend a person's will to do what he pleases, and then make them forget it ever happened, or remember it in some way that hides the truth. This isn't something he cares to do often these days, if at all, but he's still perfectly capable of it. Glamour a human too often, and they become addled and less intelligent, essentially turning them into an airhead. Godric's fangs are extendable and retractable at will. They will sometimes extend instinctively in response to a threat, or due to anger or lust (either bloodlust or sexual lust). Usually, Godric has very good control, and his fangs will stay where he puts them. If he bites someone, the bite can be either painful or downright erotic, depending on his intent. His saliva also has coagulative properties which will make a wound stop bleeding and speed the healing process immensely. For more severe, or internal injuries, Godric's blood has potent healing powers that will fully restore a human to health, but it comes with side effects. The human will be fully rejuvenated beyond their normal state, and will be temporarily faster, stronger, and more aware than usual, and will heal more quickly on their own should they be injured again. They'll feel energized and more attractive than normal, but the blood also creates a bond with the donor. The human will feel attracted to Godric, even to the point of having wet dreams about him, and Godric will be able to know where they are and monitor their emotions at all times. If blood is exchanged three times, the bond becomes a two-way street, and Godric and the human will feel uncomfortable if separated for too long. If Godric drinks from a human and offers his blood at the point of that human's death, that human will become a vampire. High on the list of things that can injure him are silver, which burns when it touches his skin and is capable of incapacitating him if, say, a silver net is tossed over him. If the silver gets into his bloodstream somehow, it can give him silver poisoning, which is by no means easy to recover from and potentially deadly. Real sunlight or fire can also burn him and kill him if he's exposed too long. Likewise, a stake to the torso could end him immediately, as could decapitation or complete dismemberment. (This is all assuming, of course, that someone is fast enough to inflict any such injury before they're dismembered themselves.) There's also a strain of Hepatitis, Hep D, which makes a vampire weak and vulnerable for about a month before they can recover. It's contracted by (surprise) drinking infected blood. Godric needs both regular sleep and a regular supply of blood to remain healthy, though at his age he needs a good night's sleep more than he needs blood. If necessary, he can go weeks or even months without blood. A lack of sleep will cause him to begin bleeding from the eyes, ears, nose, and/or mouth, and will weaken him. Also, like all vampires of his type, he doesn't like garlic at all, though it won't really harm him. Last but not least, Godric can't enter the home of a mortal without being invited in by the owner or other resident, and if his invitation is rescinded at any time, he'll be physically compelled to leave. Category:Undead Category:Characters